Structure of Insects' Wings. 35 



wings of the small dragon-flies, so common through 

 the greater part of summer, with bright blue, or 

 oftener red, bodies, are beautifully transparent, con- 

 sisting of a delicate membrane, stretched, as it were, 

 to a sort of ornamental network. Another dragon-fly, 

 rather larger, and with a metallic-looking bluish green 

 body, has more minute divisions in its wings, and in 

 each wing a brownish patch of shading, producing a 

 very soft appearance. It has not the little black spot 

 seen in the smaller species ; it seems as if that orna- 

 ment would not be in keeping with its softer shades. 



But the wing which I have always thought the 

 most curious in my collection is that of a little beetle, 

 so small as to possess (so far as I know) no popular 

 name, but which in learned language, boasts an ap- 

 pellation of no less than nine syllables "Trichop- 

 teryx atomaria." It is a very lively, active little 

 creature, common under moss in spring ; and is to be 

 observed like the larger insects coming forth in the 

 summer sunshine, and taking short but energetic 

 flights. Its wings are unusually narrow, and each 

 fringed with hairs half the length of the wing itself. 

 This long fringe surrounds it except in two places at 

 the centre, where the wing doubles up so as to allow 

 it to fold easily ; here it is replaced by short hairs. I 

 have a slide, showing the folded wing and its case 

 prepared side by side, and I can see that there is a 

 sharply- creased " plait " or " tuck " in this central 

 part, which shortens the narrow shaft of the wing ; 

 then the point of this shaft is doubled up, then 

 another fold stows all away neatly, and all the longer 



